Acan's under halides?

[spankey]

Just a question? Do any of you sucessfully have acan's under halides? I had a gorgeous acan colony that I placed in my main reef tank under 20k halides. For some reason it looked as if they started to melt away. I was sick!:eek1: Any rate, I though it was my tank, then I moved them down to a shadier area in the tank. They seemed to be coming around, but still did not look all that great.

I just set up an aquapod, did a tank transfer of sand, rock and water. Pretty much a new tank setup, with just all the established livestock. Any rate, I decided to try to see if I could save my acans'. I moved them from my main tank into the pod and sure enough, they are starting to come back!

Could it have been the halides? The only difference was the lights? Same water, everything? Maybe there was something in my tank agitating them? Fish, crab, starfish? Who knows. There are NO fish in the pod as of yet. I only intend on putting two percula's in there.

So my question anyone have thier acans under halides and if so are they somewhat shadded? I would love to try them again in my larger tank but am afraid of losing a small investment!

Thanks for your info and tips.

OH yeah I almost forgot, I feed them every other day so it wasn't a food issue?

Spankey!

 

[csig]

Just a data point: I have acan lords, acan (sub)echin, micromussa, and blastomussa all growing under 14k 250W HQI metal halides. I put them on the bottom and in lower flow than the sps get on top. All were frags and all are doing great. I target feed every few days. All have started propogating/budding new polyps.

I target feed a combination of mysid shrimp and a slurry similar to Eric Bourneman's recipe.

Curt

 

[spankey]

Thanks! My nano has so much flow now I hope they do ok. They are really starting to comeback strong. So I assume all is going well. Keeping my fingers crossed.. Here is a picture of what they looked like when I got them. Gorgeous!

By the way might you have a link to Eric Bourneman's slurry? Just curious what he is making?

Thanks for your info and time!

Spank

 

[csig]

Beautiful acan! I don't have a link to the bourneman recipe. I got from either his book or a posting here on reefcentral. It really just amounts to putting a bunch of different ingredients in a blender and then blending until you reach the consistency you like (i.e., fine particles or larger chunks).

Some of the ingredients in mine were:

frozen mysid
frozen cyclopeze
freeze dried cyclopeze
frozen emerald forest
fresh squid from grocery store
fresh oysters from grocery store
garlic cloves
selcon

There may have been a few other items. I probably wouldn't add the squid next time. It can be too hard to chop in the blender and then you end up with some largish rubbery pieces that the fish and coral don't eat. Once I've blended this, I pour it in baggies and freeze. Then I have nice "flats" of it that I can break off a small piece whenever I want.

When I want to target feed, I combine a slightly larger piece of this with a chunk of frozen mysid in tank water. Once it's thawed, I suck it up into a syringe and feed the mysid and slurry to the coral. (I turn off my powerheads and make sure to feed my fish and shrimp first.) I've been getting great lps growth from this. I've had single micromussa and acan lord polyps that now have a ring of baby polyps around them. some of the babies have now had babies as well.

Curt

 

[spankey]

Thanks for the info...

 

[billsreef]

Any time you change a coral to brighter lighting, start with it low and gradually move it up. I keep this one about 10-12 inches from a 175 watt 10K bulb and under about 2 inches of water. Since this photo was taken back in September shortly after getting it, it is grown and colors have intensified nicely